Happy Halloween! The Serpent's Egg, And Other Tales of Darkness

Just in time for Halloween, I would like to announce my new self-publishing venture...

The Serpent's Egg, And Other Tales of Darkness, contains 12 horror short stories and one Cthulhu mythos novella, the titular The Serpent's Egg. All of these stories have appeared elsewhere before, but this is the first time they have all been published in one easy to download/read edition.

To order your very exclusive premium paperback edition of the collection, click here. To download an eBook edition for your eReader of choice, follow this link.

And have a very Happy Halloween!

Steampunk Thursday: MCM London Comicon

I attended the MCM London Comicon at the weekend, with fellow Steampunk authors Kit Cox and Jema 'Miss Emilly Ladybird' Hewitt.

Raring to go!

It was the usual mix of giant Pac-Men, Manga and Anime characters (that are totally lost on me), zombie-hunting commandos, and PVC fetishism... Sorry! I mean dressing up as Harley Quinn from the Batman franchise.

That's a whole lot of villainy right there!

I was there selling my Pax Britannia novels, but there was also some interest in YOU ARE THE HERO from some of the older attendees, shall we say. It's also always nice to bump into old friends as well, such as Spindles and his crew, and film-maker Martin Gooch.

Spindles, Miss Spindles, film-maker Martin Gooch, and Mrs Spindles.

I also met a young man who's already had his first book published! Well done, Richie!

YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks

You can see a few of my photos from the weekend here, but you'll find more of them here.

A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks

As part of the inaugural Kilburn Literary Festival, I shall be giving a talk about the history of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and how YOU ARE THE HERO came to be.

The talk will take place on Sunday 2 November, from 2.00-3.30pm, at the North London Tavern.

The event has been arranged by legendary FF commissioning editor Geraldine Cooke and tickets are available from here.

SFX #254

The latest  issue of SFX is rather a special one for me, as it turns out.

I've known my Book Club piece on Ted Hughes' The Iron Man was going to be in there for a while.

I also had an inkling that a write-up of Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 might appear as part of Event Horizon.

However, I had no idea that friend of Fighting Fantasy, and this blog, Group Editor-in-Chief Dave Bradley, would have this on his bio bit this month...

Thought for the Day

#GamebookFriday

It's Gamebook Friday once again, or #GamebookFriday, as I like to call it on Twitter now. In my gamebook-related news this week, YOU ARE THE HERO has been reviewed in SciFiNow Magazine...

And I shall be giving a talk about how YOU ARE THE HERO came to be at the Kilburn Literary Festival on Sunday 2 November. For more details, and tickets, follow this link.

Thought for the Day

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”

~ William Wordsworth

Gamebook Friday: YOU ARE THE HERO - 30 years, 30 chapters, 30 5-star reviews

YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, has been out for almost six weeks now, and continues to collect pleasing reviews. The latest is from the Amazing Stories review site:

"You Are The Hero is an exceptional achievement in its complete coverage of Fighting Fantasy, covering almost everything that has appeared under the brand name, including computer games, board games, mooted film projects and publicity campaigns. It’s an essential reference book for fans of the series whilst also packed with nostalgia value for those of us who grew up with the books."

To read the rest of the review, follow this link.

YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks

30 years, 30 chapters, 30 5-star reviews

Steampunk Thursday: Pax Britannia reviews

Some more, rather pleasing, reviews of my various Pax Britannia books have appeared online recently, which are all the more pleasing when you consider that the first book in the series was published seven years ago! Here are just a few of them:

Unnatural History
"Jonathan Green is most surely one of the futuristic-steampunk heroes the literary world has. His writing is fantastic fantasy that has you gripping the edges of the book to prevent yourself from being sucked in. Quicksilver is the sort of hero OTHER heroes look up to. He's dashing, suave and can give and take a good kicking like the best of them. This entire series is fabulous. Buy them. BUY THEM ALL."

Leviathan Rising
"I bought this book as something to read that night in the hotel. I could not put it down. I stayed awake in delight reading into the early hours to discover if my guess about the villain was correct - no I did not 'get it' immediately, but it dawned on me as I read onward. The whole reminded me of the adventure movies I used to watch in the late 1950's on a Saturday morning when I was a child. I loved it. Well done, Mr Green. I shall now look for the next book with interest."

Blood Royal
"So many characters, plots and more that speed you towards an extraordinary action-packed finale. If you like a smidgen of Steampunk in your library make it this series!"

Of course, you could pick up the next Pax Britannia book for your collection at the forthcoming Steampunks in Space event at the National Space Centre in Leicester. Maybe I'll see you there...

Thought for the Day

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.”

~ Philip K. Dick

Warhammer Fest 2014

Today was the second day of the inaugural Warhammer Fest at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. It was also my birthday.

After the debacle that was last year's Games Day, I was interested to see how the new format would work. It certainly wasn't manic like Games Day used to be, and it was certainly more than just the glorified shop that Games Day was last year, but if anything it was a little too quiet, with not enough going on.

I think I viewed things differently this year, having recently organised a con myself, but what the day really lacked was a clear structure. There was plenty of middle, with different seminars going on (although most weren't miked) but no clear beginning or end, at least as far as I could see.

That said, it was great to catch up with the likes of Neil Roberts, James Swallow, Nick Kyme, Graeme Lyon and Michael Knight, along with YOU ARE THE HERO and Fighting Fantasy Fest alumni Jes Bickham and John Blanche. It was also a pleasure to meet miniature designer Seb Perbet (the man behind the new Nagash concepts) who remembered my name from back in the day! (Now that did make me feel old.)

You can see more of my photos from Warhammer Fest here. I was very pleased to pick up some more of James Swallow's Garro audio dramas, and I'm looking forward to cracking open this particular title!

Did you know...?
Dan Abnett, Steve Savile, Storm Constantine - who have all written for Games Workshop at one stage or another (for Black Library or the long-defunct GW Books), like myself - also celebrate their birthdays today?

Super Thursday

Today - Thursday 9 October - is officially known as Super Thursday in the world of books, because it is the day many publishing houses release what they hope will be their biggest sellers for the Christmas market.

I have two books out which would make ideal Christmas presents. One is YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which now has 28 five-star reviews on Amazon, and which was also recently reviewed by the Fantasy Book Review, scoring 99%!

The second is Christmas Explained: Robins, Kings & Brussel Sprouts. You can find out more about this festive stocking filler here.

So while I'm helping to celebrate the launch of Scott K Andrews' new novel Time Bomb in central London tonight, why not mark Super Thursday by buying one of my books? ;-)

Thought for the Day

Match Wits With The Kids

It might be six years since my one and only entirely educational book Match Wits With The Kids was published, but there are still people who are just discovering it for the first time. Here's what some of them have had to say recently.

"This book... is a must have book for all parents who have primary age children. Highly recommended!" ~ 5 stars

"Brilliant!" ~ 5 stars

If you enjoy my non-fiction books then you should check out YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks and look out for the forthcoming Christmas Explained: Robins, Kings and Brussel Sprouts.

Short Story Satruday: Legends

It's Short Story Saturday and I find myself sitting here with two short stories, and an entire anthology of short stories, vying for my attention. So rather than working on any of them, I'm posting some reviews of another anthology that I'm in - Legends a.k.a. Stories in Honour of David Gemmell.

"This is a nice selection of stories all with some hints at future developments. good stories always have back stories and these show how they are developed." ~ 5 stars

"A good tribute to David Gemmell. I enjoyed most of the stories, and they made me look up the authors I hadn't heard of previously." ~ 4 stars

"Usually in a collection like this I find myself skipping pages on some of the stories - not this time! ~ 4 stars

"I thoroughly enjoyed this selection of short stories. If you like battle scenes, and fantasy, you'll love this book. Heartily recommended!" ~ 5 stars

So there you go. Why not pick up a copy of Legends for yourself today?

Gamebook Friday: Bloodbones the App!

Coming late 2014 or early 2015...

Steampunk Thursday: Steampunks in Space

On Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th November 2014, I shall be one of the guests at Steampunks in Space at the National Space Centre in Leicester. So if you're in the area, why not come along and say "Hi!" and pick up one of my Pax Britannia novels while you're there? After all, Dark Side is set in space as well as on the Moon!

You can find out more about this splendid event here.

Warhammer Wednesday: Space Marine Terminators

Last week it was all about the Space Marine Terminators over at the Black Library. I've written about Terminators a few times myself, over the years.

The first Warhammer 40K story I ever wrote for Black Library featured an Ultramarines Terminator called Brother Rius. Salvation was reprinted a couple of times as part of other Space Marine collections, and always seemed to be popular.

More recently I wrote about the Imperial Fists Terminator Brother Nabor of Squad Scipio in the Path to Victory gamebook Herald of Oblivion.

Did you know that Herald of Oblivion is Black Library's best-selling Path to Victory gamebook? If you haven't read it yourself yet, you can pick up a copy here.


















Talking of Black Library eBook collections, my most recent Warhammer short story Sticks and Stones can now be purchased as part of the collection Eaten By Rats.